by the place that i met you
by irnan
Summary: The thing about families is, they worry about you. Even when you don't want them to. companion piece to "if love can move a mountain".


_this is a disclaimer._

_**AN:** Companion piece to "if love can move a mountain". Almost certainly AU for the EU._

**by the place that i met you**_  
_

For years now, Han Solo had been able to count the number of times he'd ever seen Mara Jade Skywalker anything close to distraught on the fingers of one hand.

As of now, he was going to have to use two.

"Luke hasn't come back yet," she said, crashing into the Solos' kitchen without so much as a "Good morning" and a distinctly anxious twist to her mouth.

Other than that, she looked impeccable as ever.

"Neither's Leia," Han said calmly. "They're probably holed up in some caf house somewhere in the lower levels, tryin' to stave off their hangovers."

Mara glared. "You think I didn't think of that? He's blocking me, Solo. He _never _blocks me. _Ever_."

Ah. Yeah. That could be a problem. Han had never and would never understand the Force bond between his brother and sister-in-law, but he knew how much it meant to Mara and Luke both, that ethereal, ceaseless connection. If Luke was blocking their connection, it either meant they'd had a fight, or he was...

... well, Han wasn't sure what the Kid was thinking. He never had been. All he knew was that if Luke was in enough pain to block his bond with Mara, then Leia was in pain too.

He put his cup of caf down on the kitchen table and walked past Mara into the hall, pausing at the doorway to the living room. The kids were all there, tired and bleary-eyed; Jacen had three year old Ben on his lap, dark head bent over red one reassuringly. Jaina had her nose buried in her own cup of caf, looking thoughtful and far away.

Han barely had to look at Anakin for his youngest to cross the room to meet him.

"What's up?"

"Luke's blocking Mara. Try and reach your Mom."

Anakin looked more like his uncle than ever when his eyes unfocussed like that, reaching out with senses his father couldn't begin to understand. Finally, he looked up at him.

"She's angry. That much I'm getting."

"They're not on-planet, are they?" Mara said quietly.

Anakin shook his head. "I don't think so, Aunt Mara."

Han pursed his lips. "Leia took off first. Luke went after her."

Anakin raised his eyebrows.

His father shrugged. "She does that sometimes."

"Since when?"

"Since finding out that her mother chose to abandon her kids to the tender mercies of a group of strangers just seconds after they were born in the full knowledge that their father had become unspeakably evil," Mara said harshly.

Anakin looked uncomfortable with his aunt's critisism of his grandmother. "We don't know what was going through her head. Maybe that Force-choke did more damage to her than we realised. Maybe her body just couldn't take the strain of the birth on top of that."

Mara glared at him. "Anakin, she left them."

"I'm just saying we don't know what those med droids might have missed."

"I'm just saying -"

"Hey, hey, enough!" Han said flatly. "We're not here to argue about our mother-in-law's lack of resolve, or whatever. Luke and Leia are missing, remember?"

"What was that?" Jaina asked softly, coming up behind him.

"They're blocking us," Anakin explained.

Jaina pushed a hank of hair off her forehead and snorted. "So would I. They just need some time to themselves. I mean, this is their parents we're talking about. The rest of us are a little more removed from the whole thing."

Han sighed, frustrated. "Jay, I get that. I do. But trust me when I tell you that leaving Luke and Leia alone to brood over things is never a good way of dealing, OK? You end up - jumping into Sarlacc pits and going on suicide missions. Seriously. There are more pleasant ways to spend a weekend."

Jaina grinned. "So where would they go, Dad?"

"They've just found out that their mother was a cowardly coward who apparently didn't know her husband as well as she thought and that their father had some serious abandonment issues," Mara said thoughtfully. "Where would they go? Not back to Yavin."

There followed a thoughtful silence. Anakin and Jaina exchanged helpless looks. Han was frowning into the distance; Mara thought he was running down a list of places Leia would have gone to.

It made them all jump when Ben toddled into Jaina's legs.

"Hullo, baby boy."

"Jaya," Ben said seriously. "Daddy's sad."

"I know, sweetheart," Mara said softly. "He'll be OK. Sometimes you just need to be sad for a bit."

Ben pursed his lips. "That's what Jasa said."

"Jasa is wise and all-knowing," Jacen agreed, leaning against the doorframe. "Why are we in the hall again?"

"But nobody needs t'be sad," Ben objected. "When I get sad I go home and then Mommy and Daddy make it all better."

Han sucked in a breath. _When I get sad I go home..._

"Stang it," he said. "They're on Tatooine. At the farm."

The rest of the family stared at him. "Why the Hell would they go back to that dustball?" Mara demanded.

"It's all the home they've got left," Han said briefly. "You takin' the _Shadow _or comin' in the _Falcon _like the rest of us?"


End file.
